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Egypt |  |
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(4th
Edition)
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Introduction Online Upgrades don't replace the guides
– they add important information gathered since the current edition
of the book was published. You can print them out and stick them in the
back of your current guide. |
Egypt has gone into overdrive to promote itself as the tourist destination of the millennium, splashing out on an expensive TV and magazine advertising campaign. Memories of the bloodshed and mayhem of the 1997 tourist massacres are being skillfully worn away by slickly produced images of pharaonic splendour and seductive seaside scenery. At the same time, barely a week passes without some new museum or archaeological site being opened to great fanfare. The two years since the last edition of Lonely Planet’s Egypt have seen the arrival of a new museum of mummification in Luxor and a Nubian museum in Aswan, while the Abdeen presidential palace in Cairo is set to open its doors to the public any day now and a museum and archive dedicated to the great Egyptian diva Umm Kolthum is scheduled to open in the capital in December. Add to this regular Pyramid performances of Verdi’s Aida (there’s another due in October) and the opening up to tourism of new areas such as the Western Desert oases.
Incidentally, if you are considering Egypt as a party destination for your millennium celebrations, bear in mind that this new year, of all new years, falls during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, when there’s not a drop of alcohol to be had anywhere. Bars in five star-hotels do stay open, but otherwise all local boozers and liquor stores are closed for the duration and the restaurants are dry.
Facts about Egypt
POPULATION & PEOPLE
Figures from Egypt's latest census released on 2 June 1997 put the total population at 61.5 million. This is 11 million more than were counted in the last census in 1986. Despite the massive leap, the growth rate is claimed to have slowed to 2.1%, as opposed to 2.8% previously.Facts for the Visitor
VISAS & DOCUMENTS
There is no longer any requirement for foreigners to register on arrival in Egypt.Try this link to work out visa requirements for any nationality in the world: http://www.travel.com.au/destination/index.html
Student Cards
For years, it has been notoriously easy to get a legitimate International Student Identification Card (ISIC) in Cairo. That situation has now changed: proof of student status is now required before an ISIC card will be issued. That proof must be in the form of an identity card or letter from your college or university. If you have such a document then you can go along to the Medical Scientific Centre (MSC; Tel 363 8815) at 103 Mathaf al-Manial on Rhoda island (there’s no number on the building but it is immediately to the right of the blue Co-op petrol station). The MSC office is on the ground floor, through an unmarked door on the left-hand side of the foyer. Cards are issued in a matter of minutes and cost E£25; you’ll also require a passport photo (preferably colour). The office is open from 9 am to 9 pm daily.MONEY
Costs
The entry fees to many tourist sites have risen since the last edition of Egypt was published. Domestic transport fares have also increased but the prices for accommodation and food have remained fairly stable. The exception is beer, which has gone up. This is a result of the sell-off of the state brewing company that had held a monopoly on the Egyptian beer market for close to 100 years. Stella, the local drop, is now partly owned by Carlsberg. The result is a consistently better brew, well worth the extra Egyptian pound or two.Currency Exchange
It's always risky to pin down a currency on paper (or on screen), so try this currency converter to give you the current value of the Egyptian pound:
http://www.oanda.com/cgi-bin/nccATMs
Although it’s only a couple of years since they first appeared in Egypt, ATMs have spread rapidly throughout the country. As well as in Cairo you’ll find them in Alexandria, Luxor and Aswan, Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh. There are two sorts: those belonging to Banque Masr and those belonging to the Egyptian British Bank (EBB). If you have your PIN number then Banque Masr machines will dispense cash on Visa and MasterCard and any Cirrus or Plus compatible bits of plastic. EBB machines respond to Visa and Plus only.
Note: recently Banque Masr machines have developed a scary habit of informing you in the middle of a transaction that, ‘Your card has been retained’. Don’t panic if this happens: after an agonising wait it will carry on as normal.POST & COMMUNICATIONS
Email & Internet Access
Since the last edition of our Egypt guide the country has taken to the Internet in a big way and there are now cybercafes throughout the country. Cairo has five, of which three are operated by InternetEgypt. It’s worth checking their Web site for the latest information:
http://www.internetegypt.com
Charges in Cairo, Alexandria and Sinai generally range between E£10 and E£12 an hour but in Luxor the cost jumps to about E£45 an hour and even more in Aswan because in both cases there’s no local server and you have to pay for the line to Cairo. See destination sections later on in this Upgrade for listings of some of the better cybercafes in Egypt at present.INTERNET RESOURCES
A list of Internet resources on Egypt –
Official site of the Egyptian Tourism Authority:
http://www.touregypt.net/links/Egypt Homepage:
http://www.interoz.com/egypt/index.htmThe Minister's Choice Hot Site of the Week (believe it or not):
http://wwwtouregypt.net/ehotsite.htmVisas and Passports, from the Ministry of Tourism, Egypt, and the Egyptian Tourism Authority:
http://www.interoz.com/egypt/visa.htmMiddle East Times:
http://www.metimes.com/DANGERS & ANNOYANCES
Egyptians, like the bulk of Arabs, take hospitality to strangers seriously. Walking around you’ll receive a steady stream of ‘salaams’ and the odd ‘ahlan w’sahlan’ inviting you to sit and have tea. This makes it all the more difficult to spot the occasional dangling hook.
As a traveller you are a magnet in certain parts of the country – notably Downtown Cairo and Luxor – attracting instant friends who often coincidentally have a papyrus ‘factory’ they’d like to show you. As an English-speaker you may also be asked to spare a few moments to check the grammar and spelling of a letter to a friend or relative overseas in America or Canada, and while you’re at it, how about some special perfume for the lady? For the most part, it’s all pretty harmless stuff, easily shrugged off. The exception is what in our next edition of Egypt we’re calling ‘The Great Cairo Hotel Scam’. This is the one in which a local convinces the newly arrived traveller that the hotel they are heading for is closed/horrible/very expensive and leads them off to another, ‘better’ place, from which your new friend earns a commission.
The main culprits are the taxi drivers at Cairo airport. They have fixed commission rates with many of the Downtown hostels and will always take you to whichever is offering the best rate at that time. (Any hostel that refuses to pay the taxi drivers’ commission can find itself blackballed and suffering a decline in trade as a consequence.) But it’s not just the taxi drivers. On arrival at the airport, if you’re not with a group, you may be approached by a man or woman with an official-looking badge that says ‘Egyptian Chamber of Tourism’ or something similar. These people are not government tourism officials, they are hotel touts. There are also a couple of touts that ride the buses from the airport. As a final hurdle, you may encounter someone latching onto you on the street – they’ll offer to lead you to your hotel where they can ‘check everything is okay’ and, of course, unbeknownst to you, claim credit and cash for bringing you in.
In the worst case scenario, the problem with all of this is that firstly, you could be waylaid into checking into some very dodgy fleapit which may be way out of the centre of town. Secondly, whatever commission was paid out will ultimately find its way onto your bill. Worse still, often your local friend will also negotiate a higher than normal price for the room, thus increasing his cut.
The simple thing to remember is to not be swayed by anyone who tries to dissuade you from going to the hotel of your choice. Hotels do not open and close with any great frequency in Cairo and if it’s listed in our Egypt guide then it is very unlikely to have gone out of business in the meantime. Some taxi drivers will stall by telling you that they don’t know where your hotel is – in that case tell them to let you out at Midan Tahrir (or the Nile Hilton) and it’s a short walk to almost all the budget hotels from there. And if you find yourself with a new friend walking you to your hotel, stop them at the door: if they begin to protest, then bear in mind that no decent, ordinary Egyptian would ever dream of accompanying a foreigner into their hotel.PUBLIC HOLIDAYS & SPECIAL EVENTS
In 1999 Ramadan will begin around 9 December and end around 8 January 2000 – see the Introduction.
'I was in Egypt this January during Ramadan, and it wasn't very inconvenient at all. Some mosques are out of bounds and museums close after 1 pm, so plan your museum visits in the mornings. Another thing not to be missed is the Sufi dancing, which was performed every day during Ramadan. It was a surprise for us to see many local people attending the performance, even women. We were told that because Ramadan is the month for prayers and introspection, Sufi dancing is especially symbolic for them.'
Source: The Thorn Tree'I would advise not eating publicly in daylight during Ramadan, especially outside Cairo. You can take part in breaking the fast at one of the mosques that serve food at sundown (it's free but you can make a donation). Problems you may encounter: restaurants, museums etc closing near sundown; altered transportation, museum and embassy schedules; cranky people during daylight hours; and having difficulty finding the really cheap street food during daylight hours (the restaurants for foreigners stay open, of course). Otherwise, almost everything is functional during the day, so you should not have many problems. The scheduling issues will be irritating, but the atmosphere will more than make up for it.'
Source: The Thorn TreeGetting There & Away
LAND
To Israel
The bus from Cairo no longer goes every day to Israel but only on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.SEA
To Sudan via Wadi Halfa
After a six-year hiatus, boat services along Lake Nasser to Wadi Halfa in Sudan resumed in 1998. You can go first or second class at a cost of E£142/88.50. Tickets can be bought at the Nile Valley Navigation Office in Aswan (Tel 303 348), which is next to the tourist office, one street in from the Corniche. The office is open from 8 am to 2.30 pm every day except Friday. Note that you will not be sold a ticket unless you’ve got a Sudanese visa stamp in your passport. The boat leaves Aswan every Monday afternoon at around 3 pm, arriving in Wadi Halfa at about 8 am Tuesday morning.To Europe
There are definitely no longer any regular ferry sailings between Alexandria or Port Said and Europe. The old Athens ferry made its last run in 1998 and has now been retired in the face of killer competition from cheap airfares.Getting Around
CAR & MOTORCYCLE
Tourists travelling by private car anywhere between Beni Suef (just south of Cairo) and Abu Simbel, right down near the Sudanese border) will find themselves having to drive in a convoy arranged by local police. These convoys usually depart from major towns like Aswan and Luxor at fixed times during the day. If there is not a fixed convoy to where you're going, the police will set up an ad hoc one: they'll have one or more police cars precede your vehicle(s), preferably with flashing lights and blaring sirens. There are fixed convoys between Aswan and Luxor, Luxor and Hurghada, Hurghada and Suez, and (sometimes) Aswan to Abu Simbel and back.
'The road linking Bahariyya and Siwa Oases is a military road with six checkpoints along the way. You can get permits from the respective military office in either Bawiti or Siwa before you hit the road. The office there will take photocopies of your passport, car registration and driver's licence etc. In our case (from Bawiti to Siwa) we were not given any paper pass, but were told the office would radio the check points to inform them of our arrival. One military officer escorted us to the first check point and we went through without any problems. However, we had to stop at the second check point for half an hour, apparently because they had not been informed. The road condition was not very good, and part of the road was covered by sand. We drove very fast in our Land Rover and it took us about six hours from Bawiti to Siwa.'
Source: Jane Zhang, Hong Kong (Jan 98)BOAT
Because of continued unrest and the threat of terrorist attacks in middle Egypt it is still not possible to cruise the length of the Nile from Cairo to Aswan, or vice versa. However, there are currently more than 250 cruise boats plying the waters between Luxor and Aswan – still a relaxing, timeless way to take in the monuments in this part of the country.Cairo
INFORMATION
Email & Internet Access
InternetEgypt (Tel 356 2882), 2 Midan Simon Bolivar, 6th floor, Garden City. Open from 9 am to 10 pm Saturday to Thursday, 3 to 10 pm Friday.
Mohandiseen Cybercafe (Tel 305 0493), on a side street off Gamiat ad-Dowal al-Arabiyya between McDonald’s and Arby’s. Open from 10 am to midnight daily.
Nile Hilton Cybercafe (Tel 578 0444, ext 758), basement of the Nile Hilton Shopping Mall. Open from 10 am to midnight daily but closed Friday from noon to 2 pm.
St@rnet Cyber Cafe (no telephone number), basement of the Al-Bustan Centre, Sharia al-Bustan, off Talaat Harb, Downtown. Open from 10.30 am to 10.30 pm daily.
Books
It disappeared for a few years but now the Ezbekiyya secondhand book market is back with 40 or 50 stalls (cabins, actually) many of which have some battered old English-language books and magazines. It’s just north of Midan Opera in central Cairo.THINGS TO SEE & DO
The Musafirkhanah Palace described on page 174 of Egypt 4 has burnt down, while Beit as-Suhaymi (p173) is closed for renovations. It’s also now not possible to enter the Citadel from the city side, which was formerly the main pedestrian approach; instead you have to go right around the back to the vehicle entrance.To allow for necessary restoration work the interiors of the Pyramids are closed on a rotating basis. Only two will be open to the public to clamber inside at any one time. At the moment it’s the Great Pyramid that’s closed and it’s expected to remain so until the end of the year.
GETTING THERE & AWAY
Bus
The city of Cairo is in the process of a big clean up (not that you’d notice) and part of that process is the relocating of its bus stations. In an attempt to keep the big buses out of the central area, a big new bus station is under construction in the Bulaq district, just north of the centre. Called the Turgoman Garage, it’s located on Sharia al-Gisr, 1km north-west of the intersection of sharias Galaa and 26th of July. It’s an awkward location in that it’s too far to walk to from central Cairo and the only way to get there is by taxi (E£2 from Downtown). At the time of writing the station has no facilities and is nothing more than a series of prefab ticket huts on a vast, partly asphalted wasteland. From here buses go to Alexandria, Marsa Matruh, Hurghada, Safaga, Al-Quseir, Marsa Alam, Sharm el-Sheikh, Dahab, Nuweiba, Luxor and Aswan, as well as Amman, Benghazi, Riyadh and Tripoli.
Services for the Delta and Suez still go from Midan Ulali, just south of Midan Ramses as described in Egypt 4, while Sinai buses continue to depart mostly from the Sinai terminal in Abbassiyya.
The bus station serving the Western Oases has also moved to a new location just south of Midan Salah ad-Din, in the shadow of the Citadel walls.GETTING AROUND
To/From the Airport
At long last, there’s a decent new airport service connecting Terminals I and II to downtown Cairo. These are big, white, modern, air-con buses that run at 20 minute intervals from 5.45 am to 11 pm and the fare is E£2, plus E£1 per large luggage item. They’ll drop you off in central Cairo at Midan Abdel Moniem Riad, which is right behind the Egyptian Museum, beside the Nile. The service number is 356 and to find the buses at either terminal, head out into the car park and you’ll spot the stand, if not a waiting bus.The Nile Valley – Luxor
BENI SUEF TO QUS
It’s still the case that independent travel is definitely not recommended anywhere between Minya and Qena. It is quite likely that anyone who attempts to visit ancient sites such as Tuna al-Gebel, Tell al-Amarna, the monasteries near Sohag, or Abydos will be escorted out of the area by the local police.LUXOR
Information
EMAIL & INTERNET ACCESS
Rainbow Internet Cafe (Tel 377 800) at the Officers’ Club (Nadi az-Zubaat) on the Corniche just north of Sharia as-Sayyed Yasouf. Open from 9 am to 2 pm and again from 6 pm to midnight.
Osman International Phone Line and Computer (Tel 310 110), just up from the ferry landing on the West bank. Same prices as the Rainbow.Things to See & Do
Although small, this recently opened place tells you everything you ever wanted to know about mummies and mummification, and at E£20 admission, it’s considerably cheaper than the E£40 charged for the mummy room at Cairo's Egyptian Museum. The museum is open year round from 9 am to 1 pm and again from 4 to 9 pm in the winter (5 to 10 pm in the summer).
THE WEST BANK
The recent completion of Luxor’s controversial bridge across the Nile has transformed the experience of getting to the West Bank. The tourist and car ferries have been dropped, so if you want to cross the river by boat (still the quickest way to go), you have the choice of either the baladi (popular ferry) or one of the small motor launches (called lunches locally) that moor all along the banks of the Nile. The baladi costs E£1 for foreigners (10pt for locals) and leaves from a dock in front of Luxor Temple. Launches leave from wherever they can find customers and will take you across for E£5, or will charge you E£1 per person if there are more than five in your group.
There is no longer a ticket office at the ferry landings as there was at the time Egypt 4 was researched – instead the sole ticket office is up by Medinat Habu, some 3km inland. Jump in a pick-up truck taxi for ‘Gurna’ to get there.Places to Stay
One new little hotel worth checking out is the New Everest Hotel (Tel 370 017), on a small side street on the other side of Sharia al-Mahatta from the El-Salam. It has 12 clean rooms, four of which have air-con. Singles/doubles with shared facilities cost E£5/10 without breakfast; air-con doubles with their own bath go for E£20, including breakfast.Getting There & Away
There is now a train to Kharga, one of the Western Oases, every Thursday at 7 am. Third is the only class available – it has no air-con and is supposed to take seven hours but reportedly can take up to ten. Tickets cost E£9.80 (E£4.90 for students). For tickets, the third class window is on your left when facing the tracks; other tickets are sold at the windows on the right.The Nile Valley – Esna to Abu Simbel
ASWAN
Email & Internet Access
The Aswan governorate has five computers that it currently lets you use for free between 9 am and 1.30 pm. They’re located at the Information & Decision Support Centre – it’s hard to miss: just look for the big sign saying ‘Internet’ beside the cinema. Also, the Rosewan Hotel has recently started its own cybercafe. As in Luxor, the connection is through Cairo so you’re paying for a long-distance call. There is a flat rate of E£1.50 per minute.
Things to See & Do
Aswan’s long-awaited Nubian Museum is now open, housed in a well-designed modern building loosely based on traditional Nubian architecture. The museum entrance is opposite the Basma Hotel, about a 10 minute walk from the EgyptAir office. It’s open from 9 am to 1 pm and then from 5 until 9 pm. Entrance costs E£20, E£10 for students.The Mausoleum of the Agha Khan on the west bank at Aswan is now closed to visitors.
ABU SIMBEL
Getting There & Away
Although there is a perfectly good road between Aswan and Abu Simbel, the police have deemed it off limits to all foreigners at present. As a result, EgyptAir has halved its fare and most visitors see the temple in the company of a planeload of package tourists. The road closure doesn’t seem to have put hotels in Aswan off offering to take travellers to Abu Simbel on a minibus but don’t pay any money until you’ve checked whether the police have relaxed their ban on travel and that the trip will actually go ahead.
Alexandria & The Mediterranean Coast
ALEXANDRIA
Information
EMAIL & INTERNET ACCESS
There are four Internet cafes in Alex but two of these are a long way from the centre of town.
Access Cybercafe (Tel 425 5766; http://www.cyberaccess.com.eg), 1st floor of the shopping mall beside the new Zahran Mall, Smouha. Open from 9 am to midnight daily.
Click-It Internet Cafe (Tel 012-311 7520), ground floor of the shopping mall beside the new Zahran Mall, Smouha. Open from 10.30 am to 1 am daily.
To get to Smouha, catch a minibus from in front of the Cecil Hotel to Sidi Gaber bus station; head south in the opposite direction to the train station, until you hit the main road (you’ll see a McDonald’s on your left), where you take a right. After 200m you’ll reach a roundabout at which you take the second left. The shopping mall with the Internet cafes is between the mosque and the new pink multi-storey Zahran Mall.
GETTING THERE & AWAY
Alexandria's Superjet Bus station has moved and is now 4km east of the centre behind the Sidi Gaber train station. A minibus (No 1) connects the station with central Alexandria; it departs and drops off outside the Cecil Hotel.
Sinai
SHARM EL-SHEIKH
Several cybercafes can be found on the boardwalk at the Hilton Fayrouz.
DAHAB
Snapper Photo Shop on the bay and the White Hawk Souvenir Shop, opposite the entrance to Auski camp.
Essential Lonely Planet Resources
Don't stop here in your search for up to date information on travelling in Egypt. Guidebooks and Upgrades provide a great snapshot of the place as it was when the author was last there, but for the very latest news, travellers' reports and embassy advice, check out the following sections of the Lonely Planet Web site.
Scoop - Egypt News Archive
Postcards - Travellers' Reports From Egypt
The Thorn Tree - Africa Travellers' Bulletin Board
Destinations - Lonely Planet's Online Mini Guide to Egypt
Propaganda - Lonely Planet's Latest Guides to EgyptThanks for Your Feedback
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